FROM SFLA NEWS

Do You Know the Trick The FDA Has Hid Behind to Defend Mifepristone? It’s Called Chevron Deference

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Caroline Wharton - 31 Aug 2023
Guest post by SFLA Lead Operations Supervisor & Medical/Law Coordinator
Gavin Oxley

GUEST POST: Did you know that unelected, federal agencies have had the power basically to make laws, because a court case said we had to trust them? The Administrative Procedures Act (APA) contains a dangerous section within its content, allowing administrative agencies to have the final determination of the meaning of statutes and regulations that the agencies deem to be “vague” or “ambiguous.” This is known as Chevron deference, named after a U.S. Supreme Court case that determined how and when a reviewing Court is to give deference to agency action under the Administrative Procedure Act. 

In essence, federal agencies got to make rules and regulations that all others must follow, and when the rules were challenged in court, the agencies got to say all had to obey because of their “expert” understanding. They were judge and jury, making huge decisions for the nation.

The landmark case Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. centered on a disagreement about what was required to comply with the Clean Air Act; Chevron was a company that opposed some of the EPA regulation of their factories. To read more on this, click HERE

When it comes to abortion, Chevron deference is important because No Test, Online Distribution of Chemical Abortion Pills wasn’t set up with a law, but with regulations. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has weaponized their deference on matters of public health and drug safety to defend its politicized stance on mifepristone, one of the two culprits in Chemical Abortions (also known as medication abortions). 

Chevron deference is particularly dangerous in regard to the FDA when you consider the agency’s position within the hierarchy of the executive branch of the federal government. The FDA is an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services (HSS), where both the Secretary of HHS and the Commissioner of Food and Drugs are appointees of the current President of the United States who is clearly an abortion extremist.  

This is most apparent in the appointment of the current HSS Secretary Xavier Becerra; a man who is not a medical professional by any stretch of the imagination. Instead, Becerra has a long track record of public advocacy for abortion as an attorney. His appointment was based on his political views of health issues (such as medication abortion) which mirror the destructive bias of the Biden Administration, not on his qualifications for the position.  

Since the views of current President have long permeated to the single-member leadership of both HHS and the FDA, the FDA cannot be considered an independent administrative agency. Perhaps if the FDA’s leadership were to be restructured into a multi-member commission consisting of true experts in public health and medicine, the Chevron doctrine may be less of a threat to the integrity of public health and welfare. 

As it stands, however, Biden’s goons have been able to weaponize Chevron to stay challenges to their guidance and regulations inconsistent with medical data. 

Since the FDA’s original misconduct in executing the accelerated approval process for mifepristone under Subpart H (essentially changing the national narrative of pregnancy from being a natural process to a life-threatening illness), the FDA has continually pushed against empirical data for the sake of political agenda.  

Subpart H is supposed to be applied only to new drugs which have been studied to safely treat life-threatening illnesses where the new drug is more effective than existing approved treatments. Think about illness likes cancer or AIDS in which people might die if treatments were not fast tracked to give some hope. But there wasn’t an abortion “emergency.” It was already available, but the FDA pushed forward a way to commit abortions with pills.

But without a national abortion reporting law, it is unclear how the FDA could come to an accurate conclusion on the adverse events associated with mifepristone.   

However, when examining comprehensive data on abortion adverse events from socialized medical databases, it is crystal clear that mifepristone is not safe. 

Medication abortion (the two-part regimen of mifepristone and misoprostol) has four times the complication rate of surgical abortion where incomplete medication abortions may need surgical intervention. It’s important to note that this fails the criteria for accelerated approval under as abortions using mifepristone would have to be more effective than surgical intervention, not much less. Other risks of medication abortion include hemorrhage, infection, failed treatment of ectopic pregnancy, isoimmunization, etc.  

The gross negligence of the FDA’s examination of the environmental impact of mifepristone is equally concerning.  

Under the National Environmental Policy Act, new drug approval must include thorough study of the impact the drug may have on the environment. As mifepristone was so negligently approved under Subpart H, an environmental impact study has never been performed to evaluate the effect of the drug’s active metabolites as it is dispersed within our nation’s waterways. 

With infertility already on the rise, the FDA needs to seriously consider the effects of mifepristone, an endocrine disruptor, on public health and fertility. What is in the water now that mifepristone is on the loose?  

For the sake of the American people and our environment, it’s time Biden’s FDA stop hiding behind Chevron and defend their approval of mifepristone with science. Chevron deference requires independent experts to function as the decision makers of the FDA, and while the Biden’s lackies may be experts at defending abortion, they are definitely not medical experts.  

With the recent challenges by the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine putting the FDA’s feet to the fire, they are taking some well-deserved heart. Real experts have entered the scene and found mifepristone isn’t safe. It’s time the FDA crawl out from under the Chevron rock and follow the science: take mifepristone off the market and protect Americans. 

READ NEXT: NEW REPORT: Illegal Abortion Pill Mills Opening in Indiana, as Abortion Facilities Close due to SB 1?! 

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